desjardfan
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-Owners still invested in multiple clubs/Why are we still exapnding?
Over 15 years in, this is absolutely ridiculous and screams of a league that is too concerned with expansion than finding owners for clubs that already exist. AEG and Hunt still have control of two clubs while the league continues to shell out new franchises to the highest bidder.
-Failure to follow the FIFA calendar
While it doesn't effect the competition in a great way because the vast majority of players are not regular internationals, it does bring the legitimacy of the league into question, and MLS continues to dodge it saying that they're looking at the problem, which is obviously a euphemism for, "We just don't give a ****."
-Teams from one conference can win the other conference's "Championship"
That's probably enough said in itself. Either do a split-league playoff system properly or do a single table system with a separate cup competition. Case in point:
-Failure to enhance the US Open Cup
MLS simply does not give a toss about the history and potential importance of this competition, mainly because they can't stick their name in front of it. This could easily be used to appease the typical American sports fan who only cares about knockout round playoff structures and allow MLS to have a true table position champion, instead of the MLS Cup and Supporter's Shield, because who remembers who won the most games during the 1997 MLB season? No one, because it doesn't matter when you have a playoff structure. Also, would allow for better understanding of the sport at large, since the rest of the world has such a competition coinciding with their league calendar.
-Continued expansion dilutes an already weak talent pool
Keep adding teams to a league that doesn't have enough quality in the first, keep filling rosters with less and less talented players from four-year universities. Pretty simple, especially when the top talent keeps escaping the continent.
-Took 15 years to figure out that youth development is important
Holy ****! You mean we should concentrate on developing our own talent instead of relying on college programs with zero-budgets to do it?!?!?!?! See: What happens when you get a bunch of Am. football men in the room used to having a free development system (NCAA football) at their disposal and can't imagine for a second they would have to pay for it themselves. This is systemic throughout the entire US Soccer structure.
-This is a sport with successful blueprints to follow from every corner of the world, and you're still f*cking it up
Seriously, how hard would it have been to look at EVERY OTHER TOP FLIGHT IN THE WORLD to get this right a long time ago? The scapegoat is that you have to reach a broader audience, or one that doesn't care as much about football as the rest of the world. Not true, because unlike the rest of the footballing world (Europe in particular) the population of this country is massive and you only have to capture a small part of the audience to still have massive numbers. Get 10% of this country to care and you've won: that's 33 million people. Double that and you've got a base that's 1.5 times larger the population of Spain, same size as France, Italy, and the UK. You don't need to appeal to the masses, you need to target a group that ALREADY EXISTS.
The way you alienate a fanbase is by providing substandard competition, and with the growth of FSC and ESPN's coverage of the sport at large, plus any number of fine websites that allow to stream games from around the world, MLS is still relying on being "the only game in town" when, in fact, it is most definitely not. Americans will pay a premium to watch top-flight sport, but they will continue to feign interest in a league that is marginalizing itself by its own hand.
Over 15 years in, this is absolutely ridiculous and screams of a league that is too concerned with expansion than finding owners for clubs that already exist. AEG and Hunt still have control of two clubs while the league continues to shell out new franchises to the highest bidder.
-Failure to follow the FIFA calendar
While it doesn't effect the competition in a great way because the vast majority of players are not regular internationals, it does bring the legitimacy of the league into question, and MLS continues to dodge it saying that they're looking at the problem, which is obviously a euphemism for, "We just don't give a ****."
-Teams from one conference can win the other conference's "Championship"
That's probably enough said in itself. Either do a split-league playoff system properly or do a single table system with a separate cup competition. Case in point:
-Failure to enhance the US Open Cup
MLS simply does not give a toss about the history and potential importance of this competition, mainly because they can't stick their name in front of it. This could easily be used to appease the typical American sports fan who only cares about knockout round playoff structures and allow MLS to have a true table position champion, instead of the MLS Cup and Supporter's Shield, because who remembers who won the most games during the 1997 MLB season? No one, because it doesn't matter when you have a playoff structure. Also, would allow for better understanding of the sport at large, since the rest of the world has such a competition coinciding with their league calendar.
-Continued expansion dilutes an already weak talent pool
Keep adding teams to a league that doesn't have enough quality in the first, keep filling rosters with less and less talented players from four-year universities. Pretty simple, especially when the top talent keeps escaping the continent.
-Took 15 years to figure out that youth development is important
Holy ****! You mean we should concentrate on developing our own talent instead of relying on college programs with zero-budgets to do it?!?!?!?! See: What happens when you get a bunch of Am. football men in the room used to having a free development system (NCAA football) at their disposal and can't imagine for a second they would have to pay for it themselves. This is systemic throughout the entire US Soccer structure.
-This is a sport with successful blueprints to follow from every corner of the world, and you're still f*cking it up
Seriously, how hard would it have been to look at EVERY OTHER TOP FLIGHT IN THE WORLD to get this right a long time ago? The scapegoat is that you have to reach a broader audience, or one that doesn't care as much about football as the rest of the world. Not true, because unlike the rest of the footballing world (Europe in particular) the population of this country is massive and you only have to capture a small part of the audience to still have massive numbers. Get 10% of this country to care and you've won: that's 33 million people. Double that and you've got a base that's 1.5 times larger the population of Spain, same size as France, Italy, and the UK. You don't need to appeal to the masses, you need to target a group that ALREADY EXISTS.
The way you alienate a fanbase is by providing substandard competition, and with the growth of FSC and ESPN's coverage of the sport at large, plus any number of fine websites that allow to stream games from around the world, MLS is still relying on being "the only game in town" when, in fact, it is most definitely not. Americans will pay a premium to watch top-flight sport, but they will continue to feign interest in a league that is marginalizing itself by its own hand.